Yangxiao Zhou PhD, MSc

Associate Professor of Hydrogeology

Biography

Yangxiao Zhou was born in Gansu, China. He received the BSc in Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology from Hebei College of Geology, China in 1982. After the graduation, he continued postgraduate study in Hydrogeology at Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, and received the MSc in 1985 and PhD in 1988, both with distinctions.

From July 1988 to June 1990, he participated in a joint hydrogeological research project as a visiting scholar at TNO, Netherlands Institute of Applied Geosciences. He joined the International Institute of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE) as a lecturer/researcher in June 1990. In January 1994, he was assigned as the residence team leader of Sana'a University Support project and worked in Yemen until June 1995. He was promoted as the associate professor at IHE Delft in 1998.

Research interests

Dr. Zhou has broad research interests. His research areas cover:

Groundwater monitoring and modelling: optimization of groundwater quantity and quality monitoring networks; detection of trends and periodicities in groundwater time series in relation to environmental changes and human activities; use of analytical and numerical groundwater models to delineate drinking water well field protection zones; conceptualization and simulation of groundwater flow and contaminant transport with widely used model codes (MODFLOW, MODPATH, MT3D, SEAWAT).

Groundwater sustainability: development of concept and criteria for measuring groundwater sustainability; use of water balance equations to analyze groundwater use sustainability; and application of groundwater models to formulate sustainable groundwater development scenarios. Managed aquifer recharge is used as a tool to achieve groundwater sustainability.

Groundwater-surface water interactions and vegetation dependency: multiple (hydraulic, temperature, and hydrochemistry and isotope) field methods are applied to quantify groundwater-surface water interactions; coupled groundwater-surface water models are used to simulate their interactions; field techniques (sap flow sensors, diurnal groundwater level measurements, climate variables), remote sensing, and model tools are used to indentify vegetation dependency on groundwater level depths.

Education experiences

Dr Zhou has taken lead in curriculum development for Master of Science programs and tailor-made long and short courses. He has been teaching postgraduate courses in Hydrology and Water Resources since 1992, and conducted short courses in many countries. The subjects of his teaching include:

Groundwater hydraulics: analytical solutions of natural groundwater flow and groundwater flow to wells in various aquifers; travel time calculation; and delineation of well field protection zone.

Hydrogeostatistics: descriptive statistics, regression and correlation, time series analysis, and Kriging method, with computer exercises.